Strategy Creation — Food for Agile Thought #456

TL; DR: Strategy Creation — Food for Agile Thought #456

Welcome to the 456th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,728 peers. This week, Rob Lambert offers a detailed guide to effective strategy creation, while Reddit user henbitcookies1 questions the value of Scrum, seeking ways to reduce its burdens. Willem-Jan Ageling identifies common pitfalls in Agile transformations, and Tobias Berggren Jensen and Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen explore the challenges of radically decentralized self-managing organizations. Also, Todd Lankford advocates for abandoning upfront commitments in favor of continuous learning to achieve better product development outcomes.

Next, Marty Cagan and Josh Kerievsky discuss how outsourcing agencies can adopt the product model to enhance collaboration and client outcomes. Richard Mironov argues for retiring the term “prioritization” in favor of more precise communication between stakeholders and product teams. Additionally, UserPilot outlines strategies for identifying and solving customer problems, emphasizing continuous research and effective onboarding, and Roman Pichler explores the benefits and challenges of involving stakeholders in product teams, stressing strategic involvement and the role of coaching in improving collaboration and decision-making.

Lastly, on the personal side, Wes Kao shares strategies to mitigate risks at work by asking critical questions and preempting issues, and Lenny Rachitsky offers ten time management techniques to enhance productivity and reduce stress. Paweł Huryn introduces the Assumption Prioritization Canvas, refining traditional methods for prioritizing assumptions in Continuous Product Discovery, while Martijn Oost critiques the “Team Topologies” framework, advocating for context-specific strategies rooted in foundational principles like Conway’s Law. Finally, Gustavo Razzetti emphasizes the power of team culture over company culture, highlighting its role in driving change and fostering collaboration.

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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Strategy Creation

Rob Lambert: How to Build a Strategy

Rob Lambert provides a comprehensive guide to building a strategy, emphasizing the importance of a clear vision, identifying obstacles, and creating actionable plans. He advocates for clear communication and aligning team efforts with strategic goals to achieve organizational success.

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We are Lemon-free this week.

➿ Agile & Scrum

(via Reddit): Does Scrum Actually Help, or Is It Just a Time Suck?

henbitcookies1 questions whether Scrum genuinely adds value or wastes time with meetings and planning, seeking input from PMs and developers on making Scrum more effective and less burdensome.

Willem-Jan Ageling: 10 Agile Transformation Pitfalls – and how to avoid them

Willem-Jan Ageling identifies ten common pitfalls in Agile transformations and offers actionable advice to avoid them, such as ensuring alignment, focusing on outcomes, and investing in people’s capacity.

Todd Lankford (via Medium): How Scrum Masters (and Managers) Go Astray By Committing to Plans

Todd Lankford argues that Scrum Masters and managers should abandon upfront commitments, which fuel false certainty, and instead embrace continuous learning to achieve meaningful outcomes in product development.

(via SpringerLink): Positive, challenging, or impossible self-managing organizations?

Tobias Berggren Jensen and Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen reveal how radically decentralized self-managing organizations (SMOs) can boost team responsibility and efficiency. However, they trigger conflicts that challenge their viability.

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024

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Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 20-21, 2024.

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🎯 Product

Marty Cagan and Joshua Kerievsky (via Silicon Valley Product Group): The Product Model in Outsourcing

Marty Cagan and Josh Kerievsky explore how outsourcing agencies can apply the product model to improve collaboration and deliver better client outcomes, focusing on trust, continuous discovery, and adaptive engagement.

Rich Mironov: My Next Word to Retire is ‘Prioritization’

Richard Mironov suggests retiring the term “prioritization” due to its ambiguous interpretations, advocating for more precise language to align expectations between stakeholders and product teams, and emphasizing realistic capacity limits.

Roman Pichler: Should Stakeholders Be on the Product Team?

Roman Pichler discusses the benefits and challenges of including stakeholders in product teams, emphasizing the importance of strategic involvement, securing commitment, and utilizing coaching to enhance collaboration and decision-making.

(via Userpilot): 7 Ways to Identify How a Product or Service Solves Customers’ Problems

The article outlines seven strategies for identifying how a product or service solves customer problems. It emphasizes ongoing customer research, analyzing feedback, and creating effective onboarding to ensure long-term success.

📯 Hands-on Agile’s Upcoming Transformation

For years, I have supported the Agile community with a wealth of free resources and opportunities for growth. From the Food for Agile Thought newsletter to the Scrum Master Salary Report to tools like the Scrum Master Job GPT, and from ebooks like the Scrum Master Interview Questions Guide to the Hands-on Agile Slack and Meetup groups, I’ve consistently provided value without asking for anything in return than your support and participation. As for all communities, there is a simple rule: the more, the merrier; the benefit of being a member increases with the size of the community and those who contribute themselves. Giving back to the community is a win-win proposition.

However, the landscape is changing. The recent economic downturn and a noticeable backlash against Scrum have presented new challenges. As a result, the business model that has sustained these efforts—financing by subsidies through my Professional Scrum classes—has become increasingly unsustainable. Consequently, my approach to continuing to support this incredible community will need to evolve, too.

Learn more: Hands-on Agile’s Upcoming Transformation.

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

Wes Kao: Derisking 101: How to identify and reduce risk in your daily work

Wes Kao shares practical strategies for identifying and reducing risks in your daily work by asking key questions, embracing paranoia, and focusing on preventing avoidable issues before they escalate.

Lenny Rachitsky: Time management techniques that actually work

Lenny Rachitsky shares ten practical time management techniques, including using your calendar for to-dos, prioritizing deep work, and saying no more often to help boost productivity and reduce overwhelm.

Martijn Oost (via Medium): Stop Team Topologies: Reevaluating Team Topologies: A Critical Perspective on Organizational Strategies

Martijn Oost critiques the “Team Topologies” framework, highlighting its potential oversimplification of organizational complexities. He emphasizes the importance of adapting strategies to specific contexts, advocating for foundational principles like Conway’s Law and Domain-Driven Design over rigid adherence to predefined models.

Pawel Huryn: Assumption Prioritization Canvas: How to Identify And Test The Assumptions That Matter

Paweł Huryn introduces the Assumption Prioritization Canvas, a tool designed to help product teams identify and prioritize assumptions for testing. He critiques traditional assumptions mapping techniques and offers a refined approach that aligns with Continuous Product Discovery and idea prioritization methods like RICE/ICE, emphasizing cross-functional collaboration.

🎶 Encore

Gustavo Razzetti: Why Team Culture Is More Powerful Than Company Culture

Gustavo Razzetti argues that team culture is more influential than company culture, as it fosters deeper connections, belonging, and collaboration. Team-driven subcultures drive meaningful change and innovation within organizations.

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🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #455: Creative Destruction Canvas, Identifying Digital Products, Descaling for Fun and Profit, Perfectionism.